Historic Building Suffers Partial Roof Collapse

CHESHIRE – A historic South Main Street building that is listed on a state preservation group’s most endangered list has suffered a partial roof collapse, according to a member of the town’s Historic District Commission.

Betsy Fox said Economic Development Coordinator Jerry Sitko e-mailed she and other members of the commission that a section of roof at the rear of the 136-year-old George Keeler Stove Shop Economic had collapsed.

The building, which is privately owned and located at 166 S. Main St., has an l-shaped rear section and that is where the roof collapse occurred. No injuries were reported as a result of the partial roof collapse, according to town officials.

Fox said Keeler was a tinsmith whose main business was making and selling stoves. The rear of the building, which has fallen into disrepair over the years, was where he made the stoves, she said.

The building was on the most recent endangered list put out by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Fox said.

“It’s one of the few buildings left in Cheshire that was used for commercial purposes back then,” she said.